Walkthrough - Prologue

Acre

Dante's first encounter occurs in the crusade-torn town of Acre. In this scene, countless soldiers attack you. They present little threat. Use this time to get used to dodging, blocking and normal and strong attacks.

Try to keep a combo going by avoiding misses and dashing between clumps of soldiers. After a few dozen enemies you'll be able to use a crashed ship to cross the way to a nearby plaza.

After the long cutscene, you'll find yourself face-to-face with Death.

Death

This battle is daunting at first, but you can win it if you employ a highly defensive strategy. You should keep your finger on the LEFT TRIGGER continually to block Death's attacks. Some attacks cannot be blocked, but the majority can.

Study Death's assault: most of his onslaughts feature three swipes, so don't stop blocking until he's finished! Stay close to him and, when you have a moment, hit him with a flurry of normal attacks, followed by a heavy attack if you can get one in.

This should knock Death around a bit. With a little bit of patience (this fight is lengthy due to Death's substantial health bar) you'll eventually knock the reaper around enough to force him into a grapple.

When the button prompt appears, mash the proper button as fast as possible to throw Death back and deal significant damage. If you don't press the button fast enough, you'll incur damage.

Return to your blocking strategy between these button-mashing events. Eventually, when Death's life bar drops very low, you'll get a different button prompt. Activate the buttons shown to defeat the hellion.